The founder of Grubhub said he twice attempted to buy back the food delivery business from Just Eat Takeaway for more than $1bn, making the revelation days after the Dutch group announced a deal to sell its US subsidiary at a huge loss for just $650mn.
Matt Maloney, who co-founded Chicago-based Grubhub in 2004, told the Financial Times that he led an effort to buy the US unit around the start of this year and in early 2022, with backing from “internationally known” private equity firms.
The details of these previous approaches come after JET on Wednesday said it had struck a deal to sell Grubhub for an enterprise value of $650mn to US-based Wonder Group, years after buying it for $7.3bn at the height of the pandemic-driven food delivery boom.